Recently in Malware & Spyware Category
Cookies from servers not located on the site that you are currently viewing track your browsing trail and collect information about you. To disable third party cookies;
Firefox
In FireFox, go to Tools > Options. In the dialog, go to Privacy > Cookies and select "Enable cookies for the originating web site only".
Internet Explorer
In Internet Explorer 6, go to Tools > Internet Options. Click the privacy tab and press the "Advanced" button. Check "Override automatic cookie handling" and "Block" under Third-party cookies.
Internet Explorer 5 and lower do not have the ability to block third party cookies.
Opera
In the Opera browser, these settings are located in Tools > Preferences > Privacy. Next to the second drop box labeled "Third Party Cookies", set it to "Refuse all cookies".
The Hosts file contains mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers. This prevents access to sites listed in the HOST file by redirecting any connection attempts back to your machine. The HOSTS file can also block other software applications from connecting to the Internet.
SecuriTeam reports that Internet Explorer 5.x and 6.x (even with XP Service Pack 2) surf to the wrong Web site if a short, dotted-decimal IP address contains an "escaped space character." (That character looks like "%20".) The resulting address fools Earthlink's FraudEliminator program and CoreStreet's SpoofStick toolbar, the firm says:
http://www.securiteam.com/windowsntfocus/5ZP0F20EKS.html
What to do: Until there's a patch for this, don't click links formatted as n.n.n.n%20x.com.
MS AntiSpyware beta Review:
The scanning itself seems quite effective. It found two spyware
products, one of which received a level 3 "elevated" warning, that
neither Spybot or Adaware had noticed. It also identified that the Yahoo
toolbar was attempting to change my personalized search settings and
remove the Google toolbar, and let me block that (Spybot also saw that).
Scanning was fast, on par with its major competitors.
**Seems the Yahoo toolbar is not so innocent after all**
We ran across a disturbing "gotcha" this week in SpyBot 1.3. It seems
that there are four entries that SpyBot will IGNORE by default:
LSP.new.net, New.net, Mysearch, and Sidestep
The owners of this software must have convinced the SpyBot authors that
they weren't *really* Spyware (or gave them money...). But unless you
un-check the Ignore products boxes for them, they will live happily with
SpyBot. :-(
In looking at the Spybot "Dedication Public License" it does say:
"I can also give you no warranty that Spybot-S&D will remove every spy
on your system, or that it will give you no false positives."
If your state uses or recommends this software, here are steps to
un-check these choices and you can re-scan the computer. We also tell
our folks not to check for DSO Exploits. If SpyBot finds them and tries
to fix the Registry entries, they just show up as errors because SpyBot
corrupts those keys.
STEPS
1. Open SpyBot by clicking Start, then All Programs, then Spybot -
Search & Destroy and then Spybot - Search & Destroy.
2. You need to be in Advanced mode to make these changes. Click the Mode
menu. If Advanced mode is checked, then go to the next Step. If Default
mode is checked, choose Advanced mode and in the warning message that
appears, click Yes.
* You should see 4 tabs on the left which say Spybot-S&D, Settings,
Tools, and Info & License.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Click the Ignore products button. Click on All Products tab.
5. Right Click on the Product column heading (or anywhere in the window)
and select Deselect all.
NOTE: We do recommend that one entry, DSO Exploit, be checked. When
SpyBot warns you that you have DSO (data source object) Exploits, it is
telling you of a security flaw that *could* be exploited. As long you do
regular Windows updates, these problems have been patched.
6. Click the Security tab.
7. Place a check mark beside the DSO Exploit entry.
8. Click the Spybot-S&D tab.
9. On the left side, click "Search & Destroy" and then click "Check for
Problems" at the top of the window. Run through the normal SpyBot check.
If SpyBot finds New.Net errors and is then unable to clean the Registry
entries, steps to remove the entries from the Registry can be found on
our How To Install and Configure Spybot-Search & Destroy 1.3. Go to the
below link and click on the "SpyBot can't fix New.Net errors" link. We
would also recommend that you try to uninstall any New.net software with
the Add/Remove Programs control panel first.
http://ict.cas.psu.edu/training/howto/util/InstallConfigSpybot.htm
